If We Had Eyes Like Microscopes 



By Edward F. Bigelow 



CERTAIN writers, chiefly Dean Swift 

 and his followers, have taken pains 

 to impress upon their readers the 

 fact that if they had microscopical eyes, 

 all beauty would disappear. The most 

 delicate skin viewed by such eyes would 

 be rough and repulsive; the whole world 

 would be filled with disagreeable sights. 



On the other hand 

 many enthusiastic mi- 

 croscopists teach and 

 believe that beauty is 

 increased by the micro- 

 scope. According to 

 them, if we had micro- 

 scopical eyes, a world 

 of beauty unimagined 

 would be open to us, 

 and every object would 

 appear to be perfect and 

 beautiful. 



The disputed facts 

 are like those in many 

 other cases: each is 

 right from his own 

 point of view. The 

 microscope does de- 

 tract from the beauty 

 of some things, and re- 

 veals new beauty in 

 others. The appear- 

 ance of nature to a 

 microscopical eye would 

 not be much dififerent from its appear- 

 ance to what we now consider the normal 

 eye. At present, some things are un- 

 pleasant to look at; yet we are living 

 in a world of beauty — everywhere. 



In some things nature will not bear 

 close scrutiny. In others, she has hidden 

 beauty that is revealed only by the 

 microscope. Among the most beautiful 

 of fmely constructed objects, few are 

 perhaps more attractive than a mos- 

 quito's wing. Its tiny scales become 

 more and more beautiful and wonderful 

 as we increase our magnifying power. 



The utilitarian reader may ask, "Of 

 what use are such things?" They are 

 .good to be themselves. It is better to 

 take the world as it is and to study it, 

 than so often to ask, "Why.''" It would 



The delicate mosquito's wing re- 

 vealed through microscopical eyes 



be difficult to explain the reason for the 

 existence of many of nature's common 

 objects. In regard to the mosquito's 

 wmg with its feathers, we can only 

 surmise that these scales may be useful 

 in preventing the air from slipping off 

 too easily; the slight roughness may give 

 the wing a firmer hold on the air. For 

 a similar purpose a 

 bird's wing is feath- 

 ered, and this reason 

 is brought into more 

 conspicuous prom- 

 inence by the fact that 

 a fish's fin is free from 

 scales. 



Here, aside from its 

 reason for existing, the 

 microscopist finds a 

 realm for delightful in- 

 vestigation ; the further 

 afield he goes with his 

 high -power objective, 

 the greater the scope 

 of inquiry. It is im- 

 possible in a photo- 

 micrograph such as the 

 accompanying, al- 

 though it is a remark- 

 ably good picture, to 

 show the minute de- 

 tails, becau.se the struc- 

 ture is so hyaline or 

 transparent, that it is not easily photo- 

 graphed. Under high powers the wing 

 becomes even more h\'aliiie. 



If the reader will think of a room full 

 of smoke, he will understand this. If a 

 small quantity of this smoke-laden 

 atmosphere be taken in a phial, the 

 blueness will become invisible, or at 

 least inconspicuous. When viewing a 

 mosquito's wing it is difficult, under 

 high magnification, to have enough 

 material to make much imiiression upon 

 tile plate; but in a comjiound micro- 

 scope the light may be so adjusted that, 

 while the wing may appear almost per- 

 fectly transparent, there will yet be suffi- 

 cient material to make a distinct image 

 in the eye. There seems to be nothing 

 too minute for the microscope to reveal. 



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